Phosphoinositide 3-kinase - Function - Learning and Memory

Learning and Memory

PI3K has also been implicated in Long-term potentiation (LTP). Whether it is required for the expression or the induction of LTP is still debated. In mouse hippocampal CA1 neurons, PI3K is complexed with AMPA Receptors and compartmentalized at the postsynaptic density of glutamatergic synapses. PI3K is phosphorylated upon NMDA Receptor-dependent CaMKII activity, and it then facilitates the insertion of AMPA-R GluR1 subunits into the plasma membrane. This suggests that PI3K is required for the expression of LTP. Furthermore, PI3K inhibitors abolished the expression of LTP in rat hippocampal CA1, but do not affect its induction. Notably, the dependence of late-phase LTP expression on PI3K seems to decrease over time.

However, another study found that PI3K inhibitors suppressed the induction, but not the expression, of LTP in mouse hippocampal CA1. The PI3K pathway also recruits many other proteins downstream, including mTOR, GSK3β, and PSD-95. The PI3K-mTOR pathway leads to the phosphorylation of p70S6K, a kinase that facilitates translational activity, further suggesting that PI3K is required for the protein-synthesis phase of LTP induction instead.